aegre

Forms

aegrē (comparative aegrius, superlative aegerrimē)^[1]

Etymology

It is the adverb of aeger (“sick, troubled”), formed with -ē.^[2][1] De Vaan traces the adjective to Proto-Italic *aigro- and Proto-Indo-European *h₂eig-ro-.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus, Asinaria: no slave could be worse, nor one to guard against aegrius, “with more difficulty”.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is painfully, with difficulty, hardly or scarcely.^[2] With verbs of bearing it is with pain or displeasure: aegrē ferre or aegrē patī is to take something ill, as in Terence.^[2] It is also grudgingly or reluctantly, as Livy's Attalus allowing something, and aegrē facere with a dative is to cause someone pain or trouble, already in Plautus.^[2] Church Latin glosses it “with difficulty, with regret, unwillingly”.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 250–184 BC – Plautus in the senses “with difficulty” and in aegrē facere.^[2][4]
• 190–159 BC – Terence of displeasure.^[2][4]
• 59 BC–17 AD – Livy in the sense “reluctantly”.^[2][4]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Painfully, with difficulty; hardly, scarcely.^[2][1][5]
2. With pain or displeasure, aegrē ferre, to take ill, be vexed at.^[2]
3. Grudgingly, reluctantly.^[2][1][5]
4. So as to cause pain, aegrē facere, to annoy, cause trouble (to).^[2]

Related words

• aeger
• aegritūdō
• aegrōtus

Usage notes

Döderlein distinguishes vix, “scarcely”, of a thing that nearly did not happen, from aegrē, “with much ado”, which looks at the agent, anxious whether he will succeed, and is opposed to facile.^[6] With ferre it stands beside graviter and molestē ferre, all of a silent displeasure, as opposed to the open anger of īrāscor.^[6]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
6. ^ a b Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper